In Colorado House Bill number 15-1043 has been introduced into the 2015 Legislative Session making Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol, Driving While Ability Impaired, and Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol Per Se, possible felonies. Whether or not the government can charge you with a felony depends in large part on the number of prior DUI , DWAI or DUI Per Se convictions you have. While other prior convictions are also counted, Vehicular Homicide or Vehicular Assault (which are already felonies) by far the greater number of people will be affected by these three prior convictions.
If you are looking at your fourth DUI , DWAI, or DUI Per Se conviction “in a lifetime” then the government can charge your current DUIcharge as a felony. If this would be your third DUI, DWAI, or DUI Per Se conviction within 7 years (and certain factors are present) then your current DUI can be charged as a felony. Before you could be charged with a felony on your third within seven years, any one of these factor would have to be present: 1.Someone under 18 years of age is present at the time of the violation; 2. Damage or injury was caused to any property or person; 3. The driver fled the scene; or 4. The driver’s BAC was .15 or higher. Any one of these scenarios is commonly found in today’s DUI cases.
What I am not hearing talk about though is this, according to the currently proposed bill if this would be your third DUI/DWAI/DUI Per Se conviction within seven years and the certain four factors set out above are NOT present(which would have made this a felony), then you can be sentenced to Community Corrections. So, according to my reading of Section 42-4-1307(6)(c ) you can still be prosecuted as a misdemeanor but end up at Community Corrections. Historically in Colorado you either were sentenced to probation or to county jail.